E3 2004: Wild Arms Alter Code F - First Look

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This remake is anything but!

By Andrew Alfonso

Agetec scored a huge coup when they captured wrestled the Wild Arms series away from SCEA. While never capturing the sales numbers of a series such as Final Fantasy, Wild Arms has been a critically acclaimed series since its debut on the PSOne. The latest title in the series is known as Alter Code F, and it's a little different from the other games. This time around, we have a remake of the first title, although not much is actually the same.

Where the similarities begin is with the characters. You'll once again assume the role of Rudy, Jack and Cecilia, who must save the world from the ultimate evil. Yeah, it's not exactly Shakespeare, but the gameplay has gone through a radical change compared to the first title. The battle system resembles Wild Arms 3 more than the first game, with the action never stopping, even if your characters may not be attacking. Aside from the original cast, there will also be three additional characters that you can bring with you on your journey. There will be expanded main missions and a wealth of new side quests for you to undertake, so you can see that the game is no simple remake. Finally, the game will also support the PS2 HDD, one of the few games that will utilize that feature.

One thing that RPG fans are always sticklers about is localization. Some companies do a fantastic job, but others don't. Agetec's Justin Lucas promises us a fantastic translation that will make for the "best story ever", in his words. Considering the quality of the work they've done in the past, we have no reason to believe that they can't get it done. Look for the game to released in October.